Moving Buddies

Dear everyone,

So, this week got pretty hectic what with the move and all. We had to figure out how to plan around deliveries and lunches along with teaching appointments and exchanges. It went fast and now we are just trying to get everything organized so we can work in our area better. We have been losing a lot of time to errands and while important, I definitely enjoy teaching and finding than moving furniture and other such nonsense. I guess I'm just doing my part to leave the area better than I found it (thank you outdoor code).

We had six investigaters come to church yesterday, and three of them were people we had never met before. The members are being a lot better about inviting their friends. The only sad part is that most of them live in other areas so we won't get to teach them. What are the odds honestly? We have a massive area. Johanne came but for some reason Angela didn't. Either way we keep teaching them both and they are both going pretty strong. I'm more worried about Johanne because he hasn't been reading as much and he seems a bit more hesitant about baptism. But hopefully all will turn out well. 

Ediverto came to church again. We met him last week when he came to church out of the blue. He is also very excited and we will be talking with him today about a baptismal date. We went up again to visit Luz Dari and she was happy to see us. We haven't been able to pass by for a few weeks now. She says she has been reading and that she wants to take some time out of her schedule to go to church. We talked about eternal families and she really liked that. She said it made more sense than what all the other churches teach. On our way home from where she lives, some guy offered us a ride. We jumped on because there were two of us and just one of him in case he tried anything funny and we were tired on top of that. His name was Efrain (spanish for Ephraim) and he is a Catholic Priest. It was nice to meet a catholic that lives their religion. He was a nice guy.

Just read the 63rd section of Doctrine and Covenants and I really like it. 64 was great too. If you haven't cracked the ol' D&C open in a while, read those sections. Also for those counting 63/7 = 9. Enough said.

Love you all,

Èlder King

Sleepless Nights

Dear everyone,

So this week has been pretty crazy. We have had to run all over the place, making tons of calls and just doing a lot of errands in general. My companion has had a hard time sleeping lately, so we went to the clinic to see if we could get him fixed up. I feel really bad for him because sleepless nights are the worst. On top of that, we are going to be moving tomorrow, and we have to fill out tons of forms, tons of calls for permission, planning a talent show etc. It gets kind of tedious, but we are almost done with all  of that stuff and it will then just be figuring out how to manage our time in a massive area.

Our investigaters are doing great, we took them to see a baptism and they seem pretty excited about their own preparation. Angela has already gotten to Jacob and keeps reading like a champ. This family is seriously awesome. They got to church on their own as well. We had a lot of other investigaters come to church, including one guy that just kind of showed up and accepted missionary lessons. We are going to teach him tomorrow. Unfortunately Gustavo still hasn't been able to make it. Most of the investigaters from the new area didn't come, but hopefully we will be able to fix that this week. Oh, I gave a talk as well. The talent show was kind of lame but that's what happens when nobody wants to take responsibility for the project.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day dad! It is a national holiday here so nobody goes to work. Me and Elder Steadman went and bought about ten pounds of cereal this morning and we found some applejuice too! We are basically making our house a constant gringo party. So that's the good news for this week. Our recent converts are doing well, Jose got the priesthood this week. I hope you are all doing well!

Love you all,

Élder King

Elder Steadman, Elder Jesus, and Elder Meza

Elder Robison and Me

Prado Times Two

Dear everyone,

The transfers were quite interesting this time around. Me and Elder Steadman are staying together, but we have a new area! Prado 1 got closed and we are going to take all of the Prado ward now. Our area is massive to say the least. But I'm super happy to still be with Elder Steadman, even though we are all alone now. We will most likely be changing residence this week so that will be interesting.

One of the families we found last week now has a baptismal date. These are the ones that my companion found that had already heard the missionaries before. We visited  them three times this week, they have already begun reading the Book of Mormon and most of them came to church this week! Their names are Johanne and Angela (the parents) with Ana Maria and Steven (the kids) Ana Maria didn't come for some reason, but she will come next week for sure. They have a date for the 15 of July and if all goes well, they should be our next baptism. We also have taken over all the investigaters that Prado1 had so we will be getting to know them in this week. It's going to be a crazy week for us and I think this last stretch is going to fly by.

Love you all,

Élder King

Diligence and Hope

Dear Everyone,

This week we were blessed with many opportunities to find new investigaters, something we need a lot. As of yet, there aren't any that are progressing, but our recent converts are still going strong.

We have been doing a zone contacting effort recently. We go to each area and just contact a ton of people for two hours. We did it in our area this last thursday. My companion with another missionary found an old investigater that basically said he wants to be baptized. We went back and talked to him yesterday. Him and his girlfriend both received us very cordially and asked us how many times in a week they could visit with us. We responded, "why, as many as you like!" So we will be meeting with them this next tuesday, friday, and sunday most likely. They still have their pamphlets and Book of Mormon from when they were listening to the missionaries before. I guess one of the missionaries just decided he didn´t like them and stopped coming. Kind of sad, but great that we fouind them again.

So we are going to be working hard this week and keeping our hopes high. One thing that is sometimes difficult to remember is that unless we are giving our full effort, it´s not enough. That's where diligence comes into play. Diligence is the attribute that makes us qualified for divine grace in our everyday actions. It can be difficult but it will definitely be worth it. Sometimes the burden doesn't feel so light as promised, but compared to the burden that we justly should have, I would gladly take the yoke of Christ.

Love you all,

Élder King